Ellen Frankel Paul

Liberalism, Unintended Orders and Evolutionism

There is something gravely amiss about a liberalism based upon evolutionism, as F. A. Hayek bases his endorsement of the free, open, or ‘Great Society’. Such a society—one based upon individual liberty, autonomy, and free-market institutions —is not guaranteed by the evolutionary process, as Hayeks own indictment of twentieth-century totalitarianism in The Road to Serfdom amply demonstrated. In the first section of this paper, I explore some of the pitfalls for a liberalism grounded on evolutionary foundations: a relucance to tamper with existing institutions which borders on traditionalism; a tension between individualism and holism, the latter born of an evolutionists concern for the survival of the group; and a relativism derived from evolutionism which seems ill-suited to a liberalism which values freedom. The last two sections of the paper examine some striking connections between Hayeks liberalism and that of William Graham Sumner and Herbert Spencer. While there are important differences between Hayeks and Sumners positions, on the one hand, and Spencers, on the other, all three suffer from a common problem: their liberalism sits uneasily upon evolutionary foundations.